Movie Review: Interstellar

This is my favourite of the trailers.

I enjoyed this movie substantially. The film's emotional and philosophic/scientist roots beneath the excellent action and CGI space effects resulted in an excellent theatrical experience.

First, I walked into the movie having not really watched a trailer, nor read any informational piece about Interstellar. I knew it was good, and it had something to do with space, but that's about it. With that, I remember speculating with a friend about what was happening. 

Especially in the beginning, the plot seems not slow, but like it's unraveling with savour. The story knows not to dump information and it does a good job of building the foundation of the world slowly, but by maintaining interest. It does my favourite thing: establish an emotional bond to the characters that will be revisited throughout the film. 

Cooper and his daughter Murphy live in a world being consumed by dust. The Earth is almost uninhabitable and this is perhaps the end. Obviously, we know it's not. Cooper's wife seems to have died and he's left with his two children and his wife's father. Cooper loves his family, but it's really Murph and Cooper's relationship that shines through. 

Mackenzie Foy as Murphy does a good job capturing her character's curiosity, but also her immaturity as a child. She is sarcastic and shy, but also resilient, and she makes her character quite relatable and lovely. I thought she did appear a little older than she was supposed to be in several scenes, but she would win me over again with a pout, or a smile. 

Matthew McConaughey was phenomenal as Cooper. He was restless, angry with the world, but quite capable. His character was always warring with ambition and who he needed to be versus the family he could never leave. There is one part, later on, where it hurt me to see his face as the grief was palpable. 

I can't speak of one acting performance that I didn't like, and in saying that, let me clarify: this film's strength was not its acting. The acting was not a weakness in the slightest, but the truth strength was the storytelling, the amazing script, and the production value. 

The production was cinematic and beautiful. It had all the beautiful and quite scary space shots that you could ever want. The music built and assuaged tension subtly, but I think one of my favourite elements was the use of silence. How often do you have a scene with complete silence for a few moments? Interstellar used the silence to its advantage several times (although I may have ruined it once by cursing) and I think Christopher Nolan's grasp of tension and his vision for the film shined through.

The story was complete with many peaks and valleys, some of them rather unexpected, and I said earlier that I teared up several times because what happened was too horrible not to. The weakest part to Interstellar was the ending, which is a mindfuck because what's happening is unclear.

Actually, that is a flaw, or recurring theme, because it's not necessarily a flaw if it was introduced and obviously intentional. Interstellar prided itself on being a "big" story that did deal with abstract and philosophical ideas. There was a sense of purpose and destiny well employed throughout the entire story, and it was like what happened was literally "written in the stars". If you don't like those types of storylines, you may not like Interstellar, but I love them. 

After finishing Interstellar, all I want to do is curl up with my laptop and listen to some Carl Sagan, and then perhaps research space a little more. I highly recommend Interstellar and it's the best movie I've seen in a long time. 

-P.E.